Bacterial Amyloids: Biogenesis and Biomaterials.

Functional amyloid (FuBA) is produced by a large fraction of all bacterial species and represents a constructive use of the stable amyloid fold, in contrast to the pathological amyloid seen in neurodegenerative diseases. When assembled into amyloid, FuBA is unusually robust and withstands most chemicals including denaturants and SDS. Uses include strengthening of bacterial biofilms, cell-to-cell communication, cell wall construction and even bacterial warfare. Biogenesis is under tight spatio-temporal control, thanks to a simple but efficient secretion system which in E. coli, Pseudomonas and other well-studied bacteria includes a major amyloid component that is kept unfolded in the periplasm thanks to chaperones, threaded through the outer membrane via a pore protein and anchored to the cell surface through a nucleator and possibly other helper proteins. In these systems, amyloid formation is promoted through imperfect repeats, but other evolutionarily unrelated proteins either have no or only partially conserved repeats or simply consist of small peptides with multiple structural roles. This makes bioinformatics analysis challenging, though the sophisticated amyloid prediction tools developed from research in pathological amyloid together with the steady increase in identification of further examples of amyloid will strengthen genomic data mining. Functional amyloid represents an intriguing source of robust yet biodegradable materials with new properties, when combining the optimized self-assembly properties of the amyloid component with e.g. peptides with different binding properties or surface-reactive protein binders. Sophisticated patterns can also be obtained by co-incubating bacteria producing different types of amyloid, while amyloid inclusion bodies may lead to slow-release nanopills.

Refolding of SDS-Unfolded Proteins by Nonionic Surfactants.

The strong and usually denaturing interaction between anionic surfactants (AS) and proteins/enzymes has both benefits and drawbacks: for example, it is put to good use in electrophoretic mass determinations but limits enzyme efficiency in detergent formulations. Therefore, studies of the interactions between proteins and AS as well as nonionic surfactants (NIS) are of both basic and applied relevance. The AS sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) denatures and unfolds globular proteins under most conditions. In contrast, NIS such as octaethylene glycol monododecyl ether (C12E8) and dodecyl maltoside (DDM) protect bovine serum albumin (BSA) from unfolding in SDS. Membrane proteins denatured in SDS can also be refolded by addition of NIS. Here, we investigate whether globular proteins unfolded by SDS can be refolded upon addition of C12E8 and DDM. Four proteins, BSA, α-lactalbumin (αLA), lysozyme, and ß-lactoglobulin (ßLG), were studied by small-angle x-ray scattering and both near- and far-UV circular dichroism. All proteins and their complexes with SDS were attempted to be refolded by the addition of C12E8, while DDM was additionally added to SDS-denatured αLA and ßLG. Except for αLA, the proteins did not interact with NIS alone. For all proteins, the addition of NIS to the protein-SDS samples resulted in extraction of the SDS from the protein-SDS complexes and refolding of ßLG, BSA, and lysozyme, while αLA changed to its NIS-bound state instead of the native state. We conclude that NIS competes with globular proteins for association with SDS, making it possible to release and refold SDS-denatured proteins by adding sufficient amounts of NIS, unless the protein also interacts with NIS alone.

The transcriptional regulator GalR self-assembles to form highly regular tubular structures.

The Gal repressor regulates transport and metabolism of D-galactose in Escherichia coli and can mediate DNA loop formation by forming a bridge between adjacent or distant sites. GalR forms insoluble aggregates at lower salt concentrations in vitro, which can be solubilized at higher salt concentrations. Here, we investigate the assembly and disassembly of GalR aggregates. We find that a sharp transition from aggregates to soluble species occurs between 200 and 400 mM NaCl, incompatible with a simple salting-in effect. The aggregates are highly ordered rod-like structures, highlighting a remarkable ability for organized self-assembly. Mutant studies reveal that aggregation is dependent on two separate interfaces of GalR. The highly ordered structures dissociate to smaller aggregates in the presence of D-galactose. We propose that these self-assembled structures may constitute galactose-tolerant polymers for chromosome compaction in stationary phase cells, in effect linking self-assembly with regulatory function.